Agricultural crisis: Annie Genevard highlights the impact of drought and heatwaves

Agriculture is experiencing "a deep crisis" with this "formidable trio", drought, heatwave, fires, recognizes the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, on franceinfo this Tuesday, while France is experiencing a summer marked by a record drought and repeated heatwaves. “We are experiencing a terrible summer and farmers are paying a heavy price,” adds Annie Genevard.

“The salient element is that all territories and all production are impacted to varying degrees, all farmers are concerned,” notes the minister. Annie Genevard wants to reassure consumers: "In terms of prices, we are not observing a massive general increase in prices and large retailers intend to play the game by reviewing the size of fruits and vegetables because they are smaller."

The Minister of Agriculture is not yet able to establish a quantified assessment of the drop in production. On August 27, she will bring together the prefects to take an “inventory” in order to be able to “adapt aid according to territories and sectors”. “That’s when we will be able to issue precise figures,” she promises.

The agricultural emergency law, passed by Parliament on July 21, plans to double the volumes of water storage for agricultural uses by 2035. This is one of Annie Genevard's priorities to help French agriculture, contesting the term "water appropriation" used by environmentalists: "We irrigate very little, 7% of food production is the result of irrigation, while other countries around we, who are carving out croupiers when it comes to imports, store a lot more."

The other objective of the agricultural emergency law in terms of irrigation is to increase tenfold the volumes of treated wastewater reused by 2030 compared to 2020. "This is an avenue that we have not explored sufficiently," she regrets. 1% of wastewater in France is reused, compared to 10% in Italy and 15% in Spain, according to the Water Information Center (C.I.eau).

Sébastien Lecornu committed in an open letter, published in the regional press on Saturday, to include "support and investment measures" for agriculture in the draft budget for 2027. "Targeted envelopes" will in particular be left to prefects to support treasuries, "the most weakened" will also be able to benefit from reductions in property taxes and social security contributions.